My review of Gail Godwin's "Getting to Know Death."

 

My review of Gail Godwin's "Getting to Know Death" is available at the link below:



 https://compulsivereader.com/2024/08/28/a-review-of-getting-to-know-death-a-meditation-by-gail-godwin/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

If You Build It, They Will Come

 IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME The saying, “If you build it they will come,” originated in Field of Dreams, the baseball movie starring Kevin Costner.  The film was Iowa farmer who hears a mysterious voice one night in his cornfield saying those words to him, and  feels the need to act. Though others think he has looped the loop, he builds a baseball diamond on his land, with his wife's encouragement, and the ghosts of great players appear on the field.      Some years ago a fellow-writer said that authors who intend to self-publish their books believe too much in “If you build it, they will come.” A writer should have a marketing plan, instead of taking the attitude that once the book is written, fate or luck will help them sell copies. Of course she was right. And yet... Sometimes the universe unfolds as it should. I haven’t been posting on my blog for a while because I’ve been researching and writing a novel set in 1940s Montreal about a woman wh...
Read more

The Art World of my novel-in-progress, "Forty Mermaids."

  My new novel, Forty Mermaids , to be published in 2026, is about a fictional Montreal artist’s development as a painter during the first half of the 20th century. My central character, Merle, faces obstacles to her work. Like many “women artists,” she struggles to carve out time from homemaking to pursue her painting. Her work is misinterpreted by art critics. Friends advise her to concentrate on domestic life. Like many innovators, she runs into conventional notions about what art is. As well, the Great Depression of the 1930s was not a good time for those in the arts.          While the administration of U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt  provided opportunities and funding for American artists through the Works Progress Administration, Canada had no such program. During World War II, however, the Canadian  government funded artists to work on pictures about the  war effort.           I have always li...
Read more

The Uses and Abuses of History

 This oldie but goodie is my review of The Uses and Abuses of History, b y Margaret (MacMillan Viking, 2008), which appeared in Briarpatch in 2009. I thought about it recently while researching the historical background for my new novel-to-be, Forty Mermaids , and thought I would share the review with you. The Uses and Abuses of History,b y Margaret (MacMillan Viking, 2008),  in   Briarpatch, May June  2009, reviewed by Ruth Latta What does “history” mean to you? A list of names and dates? Great deeds of long ago? “History,” says historian Margaret MacMillan, is something we all do.” Formerly at the University of Toronto, now at Oxford, Professor MacMillan is well-known for her Governor General’s Award-winning book, Paris 1919 , and, more recently, for Nixon in China . These thoroughly researched, academically respected books are entertaining reads. Similarly reader-friendly is her latest book, The Uses and Abuses of History. MacMillan finds it natural that we...
Read more